The modern practice of physic : exhibiting the characters, causes, symptoms, prognostics, morbid appearances, and improved method of treating the diseases of all climates / by Robert Thomas, M.D., of Salisbury.

  • Thomas, Robert, 1753-1835.
Date:
1813
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The modern practice of physic : exhibiting the characters, causes, symptoms, prognostics, morbid appearances, and improved method of treating the diseases of all climates / by Robert Thomas, M.D., of Salisbury. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    indurated. Sometimes the inflammation in the gland proceeds to sup- puration. The inflammation that takes place in the lymphatic vessels is of the erysipelatous kind, and sometimes terminates in mortification. At other times, however, it resembles rheumatism, and m several instances abscesses have been formed in the cellular substance. Ulcers which are difficult to cure, are in some cases the consequence of these ab- scesses. Dr. Hendy conceives that the lymphatic vessels being inflained and obstructed, will be incapable of absorbing and transmitting the lymph de- posited in the cellular membrane by the exhalant arteries ; that an un- due accumulation of this fluid hi consequence taking place, the skin will be distended ; that the great distention will crack the skin, and suffer the lymph to ooze through the fissures, and that this fluid drying occasions the scaly scabby appearances exhibited in those cases. He illustrates his opinion by an appeal to the late Mr. Hewson's experiments, by which we are taught that the lymph deposited in the cavities and vessels of an healthy animal, will always jelly on being exposed to the air. The occasional cause of the disease is referred by Dr. Hendy chiefly to cold, and he considers the peculiar dryness of the atmosphere of Bar- badoes, arising from its being cleared of woods, with which the other West-India islands abound, as the circumstance which renders the peo- ple of Barbadoes particularly liable to this complaint. What the real cause may be, I will not pretend to determine, but I think it may be ow- ing more likely to some peculiarity in the waters of that island. The inhabitants of certain districts abounding with saline and mineral springs, are more frequently afflicted, we well know, with diseases of the glands in the neck, such as the goitre and Derbyshire neck, than persons residing in other situations. Although there is some little difference in the appearance of the two species of elephantiasis here described, still both require the same mode of treatment. Notwithstanding that the fever Avhich precedes the inflammatory af- fection of the groin sometimes runs high, still it seldom v/ill be necessary in elephantiasis, to have recourse to the lancet, in order to moderate it. Should any great degree of nausea prevail, it maybe advisable to give an emetic ; and after its operation, if the body should be costive, some gen- tle purgative may be administered. To promote a moderate perspiration, the diaphoretics advised undei- the head of Simple Fever may be prescribed ; to assist the efl'ect of which, the patient should drink plentifully of warm diluting liquors. The paits affected are to be well fomented v/ith cloths dipped in a warm infusion of emollient herbs, and afterwards be Vv'rappcd up in flannel. When the fever gpes off, the cinchona may be given with advantage : and it is probable that an issue put into the thigh might be serviceable. If suitable means have been neglected on the first attack of the dis- ease, and the leg has become much enlars^cd, with a scaly ond irregular